Midnight Fright

I was never a believer in ghost stories even though I enjoyed writing them. I mean, I liked it to stay fiction, and in my head, fiction was going to remain, until I went to spend the night in the hostel with my friend, and that belief took a big turn.

It was exactly 12 midnight when she tapped me on the shoulder. I rubbed my eyes as I struggled to open them. "I'm pressed and really need to use the bathroom," she whispered. "Can't you hold it?" It was obvious I wasn't ready to accompany her, so I looked for reasons that would make us stay back. The urge to use the bathroom was pressing, and I couldn't let her face embarrassment, so I agreed to accompany her.

I've never been to the school's bathroom at such an hour of the day. It was frightening, but I couldn't let her face embarrassment. I felt it was the devil's hand work anyway because, according to her, she'd never felt such a compelling urge to use the bathroom at such a time of the day.

Slowly, we opened her room's door; it creaked, and we hushed at it so it didn't awaken other students or reveal our presence to whatever spirit that must have been lurking around. After much dragging of feet, we got to the bathroom. I refused to cross the bathroom threshold with her, choosing to stand outside with the idea that I was watching her back when, in reality, I was scared as hell.

The moment she got in, she turned on the flashlight. A few seconds later, she darted out, screaming. The moment I heard her scream, I sprinted like a professional athlete back to the room. She arrived later, and unfortunately, what we tried to avoid happened. She had messed herself up. She looked so terrified, and I could see goosebumps spread over her skin.

"What happened?" One of the roommates who managed to wake up because she heard the scream questioned but Dorcas couldn't utter a word. She was in complete shock, her teeth chattered as if ice water was emptied on her head. Eager to know both what she saw and what frightened her, I couldn't wait to hear what she saw.

My heart lost its symmetrical beat, and till the morning, my friend and I couldn't blink an eyelid to catch sleep. The next day, even though she was still very scared, she was able to speak. According to her, as she turned on the flashlight, she shone it down the alley of the bathroom to be doubly sure there was no Joker lurking anywhere, but to her surprise, there was something more frightening than The Joker. She said it was a being without a head, it had some kind of black cloak on, and its feet floated in the air.

"How come you stood back to notice all of these characteristics?" Another roommate who had woken up to hear the story asked. "For a split second, I felt hypnotized, and when I found my voice, I screamed and ran out." She returned.

Goosebumps painted my entire skin as she spoke, and the urge to vacate the hostel made my chest burn. I believed her story because never have I seen my friend in such terror to the point of not wanting to speak due to fear of something grabbing her throat and wrenching it.

I've heard several stories of spirits, witches, ghosts, etc., always lurking in hostel bathrooms at wee hours of the day, but the one I experienced, though I didn't see the apparition, made me believe that these things actually do exist.

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